


The Light Bulb Moment

by ItFeelsLikeHome



Series: Witnessing Robron [1]
Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Domestic Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-04
Updated: 2017-07-18
Packaged: 2018-11-08 22:36:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11091360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ItFeelsLikeHome/pseuds/ItFeelsLikeHome
Summary: A series of chapters from other characters' point of views having the lightbulb moment with Robron, whilst living in the same house as them, and realising how in love they really are.





	1. Chas Awoken

Chas hadn’t wanted to admit that it was true. She’d heard Aaron utter the words numerous times, but at first she hoped it was a phase and he would finally see sense. That had been months ago, then Robert had moved in and it was blindingly obvious. Like a light bulb coming on in a darkened room: illuminating everything and making everything happier. 

He made Aaron happier. 

It wasn’t just the positive effect Robert had on her son. It was the little things, the tender moments, that she had witnessed over the course of their co-habitation. 

She’d been in a deep slumber until she’d heard the cacophonous bang. Jerking up in bed, she tilted her head to one side to hear what was going on. Could it be a burglar? Charity, possibly, wandering around to get a drink? Maybe even Noah or Liv? Maybe it was even Aaron and Robert returning from their night out? She had to investigate. With eyes sleep-starved and half-closed, she got out of bed and padded down the stairs. 

The door to the back room was wide open, and the glaring light was leaking out into the hallway making her squint and protect her eyes from the painful illumination. It seemed like Aaron and Robert were back, which meant that she should return to bed. However, the grunting and groaning - not pleasurable or happy - meant that she had to find out what was going on. 

Bracing herself for the worst, she felt like an extinguished balloon when she let out a huge sigh of relief at Aaron attempting to prop up a wasted Robert against the back of the settee. 

‘God! What’s happened to him?’ she asked her son whilst casting her eyes over Robert. His normal alabaster face had an unearthly sheen to it, and his usual bluey-green eyes looked wild and free. In fact they looked bloodshot and irritated. 

‘He’s had shots with Vic and Adam.’

‘Didn’t you have any, love?’

‘I knew this soft lad wouldn’t be able to cope with too much alcohol and would need one of us sober to bring him home.’

Aaron turned to Robert, coercing one of Robert’s arms over his shoulder before manoeuvring him round to the front of the settee. Chas was about to give assistance, but it seemed that Aaron was an expert at steering Robert - even if the latter was having a cheeky squeeze at her son’s bum. She averted her eyes not wanting to see it. 

Once Robert was sat down on the settee, he looked up - eyes full of so much love for her son - and said, ‘’Ave aye said ’ow sexy ya are?’ Each word Robert shouted was slurred. ‘Wow! There’s two ov ya. ’Ave a died ‘n’ gone t’eaven?’

‘You? Heaven? After all the things you do.’

Robert playfully back-handed him. 

‘No, there’s not two of me. Just one. One of me and one of you. Even though you drank for about four of us.’

‘Aaron, a don’t feel too good.’

‘Mum, can you -’

Before Aaron even finished speaking, Chas had already gone straight to the cold tap faucet and filled up a tumbler. She rushed to Aaron’s side and watched him kneeling down, lightly brushing his knuckles against Robert’s dew-sodden cheek. Stooped over and head down, Robert grabbed onto Aaron’s arm for support until he warily lifted his head and their eyes locked. Aaron proffered Robert the tumbler of water, but Robert was focusing on Aaron’s blue swirls. 

And if Chas was being honest, she was sure they were having a moment. She’d seen people in love having that look where they had been transported into a different world that only belonged to the two of them. What was the term Liv had called it when they were watching one of her favourite programmes only last week? Heart eyes? She’d never heard of it called that before, but she could see a huge amount of love being broadcast between the two of them - transmitted in digital flaming technicolour but only on a channel that the two of them could watch. 

Chas stepped back slightly, not wanting to intrude on such a loving moment. 

‘Here, Robert. The water will do you some good.’

Unsteady with all the alcohol in his system, Robert needed the support of Aaron in holding the tumbler. Without being asked to, Aaron’s hands held it up to Robert’s mouth as he took little sips. 

He pulled away from the tumbler, allowing some of the water to fall onto his lap, to whisper, ‘Aaron, a really don feel too well.’ Robert’s body trembled, as he tried to quell his uneasy stomach. 

‘I think he’s going to hurl.’ She didn’t know what good her declaration was because as soon as the words had left her mouth, she seemed to pre-empt the inevitable. 

As if hoping to stop it from happening, Robert’s hand clasped around his mouth. And with the most part, he had managed to contain some of the sick in his hand. Some of it was in his sideburns and on his face. 

‘He’s flaming got sick on my settee,’ she screeched not caring that there were three people fast asleep upstairs. 

‘Mum, that’s not his fault. And he’s not very well.’ The harsh timbre of his tone did not leave her in any doubt that he was unimpressed, neither did the furrowed brow he was sporting or the tramlines on his forehead. 

They’d locked horns before when it came to Robert, but that had been prior to Aaron and Robert officially getting back together. Since their reunion, she hadn’t said much about him but she knew now not to complain about Robert to her son. 

She fixed a cloth and a bowl full of warm soapy water intent on cleaning the mess that Robert had left on the settee. But as soon as she had submerged the cloth in the bowl and started scrubbing at the disgusting stains that would end up being ingrained in the material, Aaron grabbed both bowl and cloth off her. 

‘Who’s going to clean my settee?’ she asked, but it could have been to an empty room with the amount of response she got from Aaron. 

Instead, she watched amazed at how with a huge amount of love and dedication Aaron wiped Robert’s mouth cleaning the last remnants of sick before dunking the cloth back in the water. He then took hold of Robert’s hand that was caked in sick. Aaron prised the hand away from Robert’s mouth where it was still placed. Starting with the thumb, Aaron got to work on cleaning it, gentle stroking motions up and down with the cloth, before then moving on to the index finger. Chas noted that it wasn’t a quick wipe or a rough tug of each finger. Instead it was done with a gentleness and care that a devoted partner might give their invalid significant other. 

The only time Chas had cleaned up sick was when Aaron had been ill. But she would do anything for Aaron - he was part of her. Her blood. She’d never done that for anyone, not even Gordon when they were married. If truth be told, the stench of sick was making her a bit queasy. It didn’t make Aaron flinch. 

And as she decided to leave the room, because it looked like Aaron might be cleaning Robert for some time and she had started yawning, she hoped that one day she would find a man that she wanted to look after in the same way that Aaron attended to Robert. Or possibly even a man that would care for her, with love and dedication, in the same way that Aaron cared for Robert. Actually not cared. That was too weak a word. 

Love. 

It was love. 

Pure and simple. 

And right then and there she knew unequivocally that Aaron had been right. He did love Robert.


	2. Liv Surprised

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Liv is slightly disappointed when Aaron is ill and their plans of going to Alton Towers have been scuppered.

It used to make Liv want to hurl whenever she’d go down the stairs and have to stomach him all over her brother. Then she was met with their buttery-smudged morning kisses on a regular basis when Robert eventually moved in. By then she had realised that Aaron loved Robert, but it hadn’t dawned on her how all-consuming and steadfast it really was. It seemed that Aaron loved Robert with his whole heart; however, apart from paying and kidnapping Ryan, she didn’t see what else Robert did. 

Well, until that day.

Aaron had promised that with it being the summer holidays the three of them could spend the day at Alton Towers. It would be a trek, but he said they would get an early start driving there. However, Robert came into the back room on his own early that morning. A peculiar sensation of uneasiness swept across her body to see Robert on his own. To her, Aaron and Robert were something that came as a pair: like salt and pepper, or fish and chips. Something that seemed to fit so naturally together that when they were on their own, Liv had to resist the urge to ask, ‘Has something happened?’ 

Yet Robert was still in his comfy trousers and t-shirt that she assumed he was going back to bed. ‘Are we still going out today?’ she’d asked already knowing what his answer would be. 

‘Oh, sorry, Liv. Aaron’s not feeling too well. I think we’ll have to give it a miss today.’

Liv tried to quell the disappointment in her stomach because, let’s face it, if Aaron wasn’t up for going then she certainly wasn’t. She didn’t fancy being stuck with Robert all day, especially on her own. 

Robert was preoccupied and didn’t wait for her response. He set about putting the kettle on and organising a tray full of goodies: a plate full of buttered toast; an extra pillow and a fleece lined blanket; a box of Lemsip and a box of tissues. After pouring the hot water into a Lemsip-granulated mug, he braced himself with the tray full of reinforcements and trudged back upstairs.

She followed, wanting to see the state her brother was in. Knocking first on their bedroom door, she awaited the stern ‘come in’ that Robert uttered. Aaron and Robert’s room always seemed a dark one, but it was even darker now because the curtains were snapped closed. However, her eyes were drawn to a sallow and withdrawn Aaron on the left hand side of the bed. His face may have been pale, but his nose was smarting and running. His normal blue eyes looked tired and puffy as they struggled to stay open. 

She walked round the bed, to Aaron’s side of it, watching with careful eyes as Robert whispered, ‘Aaron? I’ve got you some medicine.’ He positioned himself on the side of the bed with the hot, steaming mug in his hand ready to proffer it to Aaron. 

Her brother’s head perked up when he heard of something to relieve the pain and symptoms, but he refrained from moving straight away. Instead, she noticed Robert placing the hot mug back on the bedside table. He then secured his hands underneath Aaron’s armpits to help lift him up. ‘Easy does it.’

As Aaron was placed in an upright position, the movement seemed to spark a sneezing fit. Aaron grabbed his nose and mouth as one sneeze came out after another and another.

‘Are you alright?’ she asked. 

He nodded, as he took away his hand to reveal a stream of mucus oozing out of one nostril. Robert was quick to usher up the mucus into a spare tissue. Aaron may have been her brother, but the sight of the snot was disgusting. However, Robert didn’t seem fazed by any of it. He placed the dirty tissue on the bedside table before turning his attention to Aaron again. Concern was eating away at Robert’s charming veneer. Gone was his insincere smile that made Aaron, for some reason unbeknown to her, all pliable and gooey and showcasing serious heart eyes that made her stomach queasy. Instead, in its place, was a Robert with dark circles under his eyes and a concerned expression that was similar to parent attending and caring for their ill child. 

Aaron never got ill at all. Well, especially not to the point where he was bedridden; however, there had been quite a lot of people off in her year, before the summer holidays had started, with a really bad case of the flu. It had left them with no energy whatsoever and if that was what Aaron had, he might even be on bed rest for the rest of the week. 

Robert ruffled Aaron’s fluffy hair. ‘Are you ready for your Lemsip?’ he asked with a slight smile. 

‘Yeah. I’m aching everywhere. Even my skin and eyelids are hurting.’ Aaron’s words were spoken with a deeper and gruffer voice than normal, which Liv did think was not possible but Aaron’s flu had affected his throat. He trembled as he finished the sentence and moved the quilt cover up to cover his bare arms and hands. 

‘Are you cold?’ Robert asked and as soon as Aaron lowered his head to produce a nod, her brother’s boyfriend had retrieved the fleece-lined blanket from the floor and enveloped Aaron with it so that he was in a protective, warm bubble allowing his hands to peek out. Picking up the mug and moving closer to Aaron, Robert aided Aaron in putting the drink to his lips. ‘Careful. It’s hot.’

She watched the way that Robert wouldn’t take his eyes off Aaron and how his hands - palm faced up over - were underneath the mug to steady it in case Aaron’s trembling hands dropped it.

He took a small sip before pulling away. ‘God, Rob, that’s too hot!’

‘Hang fire,’ Robert said before taking the tea off her brother. ‘I’ll fill it up with some cold water.’ Like a seasoned explorer on their latest expedition, Robert was ready to assist Aaron as best he could and headed downstairs in order to make Aaron’s medicine-taking as smooth a process as possible.

She was left on her own with her brother. ‘Liv, I’m sorry about today.’ It was said in such a whisper that Liv had to strain her ears. 

‘Don’t worry about it. You just get yourself better.’ She glanced at the medication and tissues that Robert had brought up earlier and then back at her brother. ‘Do you want me to get you anything?’

Aaron raised his head higher, turning it to look at the items Robert had brought up, ‘No, it’s okay. I think Robert has got it covered.’

A small giggle escaped out of her mouth. ‘Yeah, I think he’s brought everything but the kitchen sink up.’

‘I’ve never known him be so prepared.’

Within a few minutes, the bedroom door opened and Robert returned. ‘I’ve emptied some of the hot water out and put in a bit of cold.’ He handed the mug to Aaron. 

‘Thanks.’

The heat emanating from the mug was a lot more bearable and Aaron was able to drink the Lemsip without needing to down a cold pint of water afterwards to soothe a burnt tongue. The energy that Aaron had needed to drink his medicine, and speak to both Liv and Robert, meant that he was exhausted and couldn’t keep his eyes open. 

‘Right, Liv.’ Robert’s stern demeanour with his hands on his hips and eyebrows raised suggested a no-nonsense attitude and his voice was met with a similar tone. ‘Aaron needs his rest, so maybe if you leave him be for now that will probably be best.’

She stiffened in the same way she usually did when one of her teachers blamed her for something that she was adamant she hadn’t done. In fact, not adamant but telling the truth and the teachers refusing to believe her. Was he suggesting that she was being too noisy and would wake up Aaron? 

Looking at Aaron, who was dosing in and out of a well-needed sleep, she realised that Robert had Aaron’s best interests at heart. Therefore with a resigned sigh, she got up and opened the door. She thought Robert might follow her out of the room - maybe follow his own advice - but he closed the door behind her. 

Waiting at the door for a second, she could hear through the door their rather muted conversation. ‘Robert, why don’t you go do some work? I don’t need a constant nurse to look after me.’

‘No chance am I leaving you. What if you need something and I’m at work or downstairs.’

‘I have two legs.’

‘You need to rest instead of arguing with me.’

‘Soft lad.’

‘I can go on my laptop in here and do some work and be on hand when you need anything. You just need to rest now and get better.’

Liv flumped on her bed wondering what she could do with the rest of her day. She grabbed her phone and started punching out a text to Gabby. She had to do something to kill the boredom that she knew would take over. 

______________________________________________________________________________

As Liv and Gabby walked up the stairs four hours later after getting drenched on their sprint back from the cricket pavilion, they walked past Aaron and Robert’s room. Sneaking a peek into the room through the gap in the door, she noticed Robert sat on his side of the bed, laptop balanced on his knee when Aaron had stirred from a restful sleep. 

‘Hiya,’ Robert whispered as he turned to Aaron before stroking her brother’s cheek with the back of his hand. Each stroke was gentle and slow and it was met with a loving gaze that the two of them were sharing. 

Instead of their eyes being in their normal sockets, they had been replaced with their hearts pulsating for each other. The look they shared wasn’t alien to Liv because she beared witness to it nearly every day, but today it seemed to be heavier and deeper. It was like their eyes were passing love letters to each other in a language that the two of them could only read. She wondered whether they would be fit to burst with how much love they had to express and share.

‘You look like you’ve picked up.’ Robert said as his eyes continued sending Aaron those secretive love notes. One day she hoped that she could find someone that passed her love notes with their eyes because sometimes to Liv it seemed like Aaron and Robert had an amazing secret - one that they both were itching to share - but possibly one that nobody really wanted to hear: about how in love they really were. They were in love. She knew it. She could feel it spilling out of the room and it nearly knocked her sideways with its force that day. 

‘I feel a bit better.’ Aaron nodded before moving his dry tongue around his mouth hoping to create moisture that his open-mouthed sleep had stolen. ‘Have you been sat here working the whole time?’

‘Yeah.’ Robert was no-nonsense again in his response, but this time the tone was tender and soft. 

‘But you should have gone into work instead of staying here to look after me.’

‘Looking after you is my job and I didn’t want to be anywhere else. I wanted to make sure you were okay.’

And then Robert bent down and gave Aaron a peck on his forehead. In that moment Liv knew what Robert did. He was Aaron’s protector and hero. He looked after her brother when it mattered the most.


	3. Noah Calmed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noah used to be afraid of Robert. Well, not anymore...

Noah used to have sleepless nights when the perturbed feeling seemed to take over the whole of his body. It was more frequent and no less frightening every time Robert would spend the night. ‘Ignorant’ and ‘Naive’ were not words that were in his vocabulary and with a mother like Charity he wasn’t allowed to be either, so to get agitated about something unfounded was not a Noah-thing to do. However, when he heard the rumours about how Robert had killed Katie and attempted to kill Paddy, he did start to get agitated whenever Robert spent the night. After Robert had threatened him for bullying Liv, well he did the right thing and backed away as soon as he could. 

But that frightened feeling didn’t last long when Robert moved in. How could it when those honeyed eyes and his velvety voice were on display? It was like someone ruining the illusion of Christmas by telling him that Santa didn’t exist or, better yet, showing a picture of him on the toilet in order to shatter any pretensions of Santa being magical and abnormal. It wasn’t that Robert was abnormal, far from it. All these little things made him normal. 

He supposed the illusion had burst on that particular day. But like a balloon that deflates and gets smaller as the air spurts out, it wasn’t until the end of the day that his fear for Robert dissipated. 

It all started when he got up for school that day - he was tired and hadn’t really got into the rhythm of a new half term at school. He supposed he was half asleep. Yeah, that must have been what it was because despite hearing their toothbrushes buzzing and the water trickling, he ended up intruding in on them in the bathroom. Both men were oblivious to him barging in, but he wondered whether that was because they had their backs to him. Or perhaps, maybe, it was really to do with the way Robert had his right arm resting on the rim of Aaron’s pyjama shorts. It wasn’t loose like the way his mother had her arm around Chas’s waist when they were known for having a bit too much to drink on Christmas Day. It wasn’t even the way Uncle Zak had his arm around Lisa’s waist, or even more recently Joannie’s, when they were walking down the street after a night out at the Woolie. 

This was different. The arm wasn’t hanging or grazing Aaron’s bum: it seemed taut around Aaron’s bare back and the hand was clasped onto Aaron’s hip. That hadn’t surprised him at all, though, if he was being honest with himself. 

No, it had been what they had done that had really started changing his opinion about Robert and had added a certain bathos to Robert’s apparent frightening persona. Robert finished brushing his teeth, spitting the excess toothpaste into the sink before he cupped both hands underneath the running faucet to capture a ladle full of water. He held his make-shift ladle to his mouth before gulping it in, gargling and then spitting it back out. He wiped his hands on the nearby towel before draping them around Aaron’s waist, drawing him in so that Aaron was resting on Robert’s hip the way Noah always witnessed them doing. He sometimes wondered whether they were actually joint at the hip when they did that because they were so close. 

Robert’s mouth curved into a big smile. ‘Hurry up there.’

Aaron moved his toothbrush away from his mouth. ‘What?’

‘You’re looking mighty delicious there in your shorts, and I want a taste.’

‘I’m brushing my teeth.’ Well, Noah thought that was what Aaron was trying to say but from Aaron it came out like ‘Am bwushin ma teef’ as he reckoned Aaron was attempting to retain the watered down toothpaste in his mouth.

‘Well, hurry up. I want another kiss.’

Robert’s impatience was palpable, lips pursed and following Aaron’s every move, intent on not missing the opportunity and pouncing on it. Within a matter of minutes, Aaron had spat out his toothpaste and was facing Robert. ‘I don’t know why you’re so impatient. You’ve already had about a hundred this morning. You can’t demand another one now.’

‘That was different. We were both naked then. And now you’re clothed - well, sort of - and I want another one. You know, I’m pretty sure that a boyfriend shouldn’t usually ask for a kiss.’ He’d grabbed Aaron’s waist again, closing the gap that Aaron had made. Instead of draping his arm around it, he pulled Aaron in so much that their groins were touching, their foreheads were touching. 

To Noah it was mesmerizing as they created a strange love heart with their bodies: the curve where their heads were touching was the top arches where the two parts of the heart had become one. Their arms and hands formed the sharp point at the bottom of the heart as they joined and were clasped together. He’d never seen it before - two people creating such a shape - but it just seemed so right coming from Robert and Aaron. And, well, how could anyone be scared of a man that created a love heart with his body? Robert couldn’t truthfully be evil if he created hearts with Aaron. Could he? 

‘You’re just greedy,’ Aaron said as his lips were twitching and itching at the corners to form themselves into a smile. 

‘Who can blame me when you look like that and I can run my hair through all that fluffiness before you cover it in gel.’ Robert raised his eyebrows in a suggestive bend. Within seconds they were kissing. Noah had to avert his eyes and go to school without brushing his teeth and washing his face because he knew that they could be in the bathroom for hours. Well, he was going on past experiences when it came to that anyway. They’d had him and the rest of the household waiting for two hours last time. His mother had got so impatient with them that she had ended up interrupting them and spoiling their fun. When they were in the shower together. 

So for the rest of the day at school, Noah had to add a certain amount of covertness to his actions. When his teachers came over to ask if he needed any help with his work, his hand found his mouth as quick as Usain Bolt running the 100 metre race. He even found himself picking some of his breakfast from out of his teeth when no-one was looking. He couldn’t believe Robert and Aaron had made him do that. 

However, by about tea time he was starving and when he got home and noticed Aaron was cooking he was relieved. His mother’s own cooking left a lot to be desired because he knew she usually only put half her effort into it, as she was more concerned about something else (usually a nefarious money making scheme of some sort). 

Noah was trying to complete his homework on the kitchen table when Robert walked in looking as smug as normal: a lip-smooth grin showcasing off his smile and that rather arrogant glimmer in his eyes. Sometimes Noah found Robert’s smile a bit creepy, but today - just like this morning - he could see Robert’s eyes twinkle like an expensive jewel on a crown the moment they laid their sight on Aaron at the hob. 

Noah knew, even called it as soon as Robert came into the back room, that within a matter of minutes or possibly even seconds that Robert would be all over Aaron. Like a dog all over a bitch in heat. Robert progressed closer to Aaron and Noah couldn’t help smirking to himself because he knew what was to come. 

‘Something smells nice,’ Robert said.

‘It’s tea. Spag bol.’

‘One of your trusty favourites then?’

Aaron looked up from his frying and rolled his eyes at Robert, who was now behind him. That was the green light that Robert needed to close the small gap that was existing between them. 

‘You know I can do more than just spag bol. I made us a pizza only last week,' Aaron said. 

‘Using one of those ready made bases. All you had to do was put the topping on,’ Robert nodded his head. But he couldn’t deny the pull his lips had in forming that teasing smile that seemed planted on his mouth whenever he and Aaron were engaged in their flirty banter. 

Noah never understood how they could be so much in love and hurl insults at each other like their lives depended on each vicious rhetoric. But, then, he supposed he never really watched them performing what he could only now describe as a mating ritual. He usually just heard their banter and rolled his eyes along with his mum, Chas and Liv. He never understand what it was they did. Anything would be more interesting than Lady Macbeth and her persuasive language used on Macbeth, which is why he concentrated on it now instead of his boring English homework. 

‘Anyone can do that, but it was my choice of toppings that really made the meal. Unlike you who likes hummus and coriander.’ There was the first insult, but there was no malice in Aaron’s face and he’d turned the whole of his body to face Robert. His head tilted to one side, his eyebrows raised in a challenge, but Noah noticed that Aaron’s body, instead of being closed up on itself while he was at the hob, was now open and relaxed and he was standing tall. He was even, dare Noah admit it to himself, swaying. A grown man swaying? Was this the power Robert had on Aaron?

‘I’ll have you know that hummus and coriander is an acquired taste.’ Robert could have taken offence at what Aaron had said, but he met Aaron’s head tilt with a raise of his chin. However, his appreciative gaze remained on Aaron’s blue pools. Both their eyes pulsated with so much love that Noah was sure he was an extra in some gooey romance with sickly sweet music and lovey dovey scenes that would make him want to retch in disgust. Robert’s hands were resting on Aaron’s hips again. An electric charge buzzed in the air as the two men touched each other. Noah was even sure he could see and feel it reverberating around the room. He’d never seen two men have so much chemistry that Noah wasn’t sure whether he should leave the room soon, or he might be attacked with the livewire electricity that was definitely sparking up. 

‘Yeah, just yours. I think it goes with that floral shirt you’ve worn before. Your taste seriously needs questioning if you can wear that.’ Aaron was swaying again as his lips swept up into a smile that was similar to a cat that got the cream and an extra bowl of milk too. 

‘Yeah, I know. You told me it doesn’t suit me. I have crap taste in shirts.’ Robert’s eyes flickered between Aaron’s blue swirls and his plump lips and back again. 

‘And crap taste in sandwiches,’ Aaron added with his eyes floating down to Robert’s lips as his hands traced the length of Robert’s arms stroking them backwards and forwards. 

‘But not crap taste in men.’ Robert was now following Aaron in his sway, smiling with not only his twinkling eyes cavorting but those crinkles appearing around his eyes, mouth and in his cheeks. Noah realised that was a genuine smile. A smile full of love. When it came to Aaron, Robert was as soft as spun candyfloss and just as saccharine. 

Something was unspoken in their shared look. It meant that both of them leaned in closer and closer until their lips brushed. And then Noah had to really concentrate on his work because they were nearly sharing each other’s shoes as their lips smacked and kisses were exchanged. Big slurping kisses and sighs from Robert that suggested kissing Aaron was really like reaching for ecstasy. Had Noah not learnt that morning that Robert kissing Aaron was harmless, he knew then.

But it seemed that everything came in triplets, and Noah had to witness their mushiness again for the third time in one day. He’d had his tea and played on his xbox for a while but now he was in serious need of some channel surfing, so he headed down stairs and into the back room. 

However, he was not prepared for the view of Robert and Aaron that he got. They were spooning on the settee watching some sci-fi film that Noah had seen advertised but frankly was not really interested in watching. Robert had his arms tightly wrapped around Aaron’s chest as he breathed into his boyfriend’s neck before relaxing his chin into the delve of Aaron’s shoulder. Noah realised someone that besotted with Aaron, somebody that addicted to him that he couldn’t seem to keep his hands off him, was not somebody that Noah or anyone else should be scared of. Maybe if they got on the wrong side of Aaron and hurt him, but Noah was a Dingle too and that wasn’t going to happen. But God help anyone that did hurt Aaron, because Noah knew they would have Robert to deal with. And then they would really wish they hadn’t crossed either of them.


	4. Charity Jealous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charity knows Robert only cares about money and material items. Well, that was until Aaron...

It was bloody relentless the way their PDAs were so brazen. No matter which room she went in or corner she turned, she couldn’t escape it. Loved up couples wanted to make her claw her eyes out with her lacquered nails. Either that or rip the two of them apart but she didn’t want to have to deal with a backlash from Chas, and a moping Robert or Aaron wasn’t something she wanted to witness either. Watching them mope around without each other would instil more bile in her stomach. 

She supposed it all started before Robert moved in: the day she walked in on the two of them in the shower - the day she wished she could forever bleach her eyes of the memory. It was tattooed in her brain: the type of tattoo that you instantly regret after a drunken mistake and wish you could have it vanish in an instance. The one that meant you would have to go back to get another tattoo to cover the hideous mistake. But the fact was that once you saw Robert thrusting into Aaron against the transparent shower screen, Aaron’s hands straining and holding himself up, the moaning and groaning as each thrust hurtled them into ecstasy and passion - if the look on both their faces was anything to go by - you could never really take the sounds and sights back. 

It was obvious to Charity that they were addicted to each other: you could only listen to their whispered moans and muffled cries she was sure were said behind fisted bed sheets, as they bit back the urge to scream each other’s names. It wasn’t restricted to the twilight hours, but it happened any time or place the mood moved them or they had an itch that needed scratching. 

To Charity, it sounded like their sex life was very fulfilling and varied. It made her jealous for one inch of the amazing sex that they obviously shared. It wasn’t until a few weeks later that she really envied them, as they grabbed a mundane task by their masculine hands and made it romantic and fluffy. They made it the kind of fluffy that Charity actually craved instead of one that she would turn her nose up and retch at. 

After spending a double shift pouring pints, she wanted nothing better than to turn the kettle on, put her feet up in the back room and watch some mindless Saturday night tat. When she went into the back room, she was met with Aaron, his hands in the basin and soap suds everywhere. 

One was perched on Robert’s nose as bubbles floated about him. 

‘You better be careful there,’ Robert warned but Charity could see no malice in Robert’s face. What exuded from his whole demeanour was a gentleness that she had never witnessed before. It was peculiar when his harsh exterior seemed interested in money and status. She never thought that he would be interested in Aaron Dingle of all bloody people. But he wasn’t just interested but completely besotted with Aaron to the point that it was nauseating for anybody else to watch. 

‘Or what?’ Aaron questioned, his back twisting to look at Robert, his left eyebrow arching, as his hands were still submerged in the water. 

‘Or this!’ Robert dunked his hand into the basin and produced a handful of soap suds that were nearly spilling out onto the floor.

‘You wouldn’t dare.’ Aaron’s eyes followed Robert’s full hand with anticipation. 

‘Wouldn’t I?’ It was Robert’s turn to arch his eyebrow in a challenge. 

Charity knew she should interrupt them; however, she was all for Robert getting the wrath of Aaron’s anger, so she decided not to. And they were in their own little world, so it seemed they hadn’t even noticed her staring or waiting to get to the sink to fill the kettle up. A front row seat to the action would be quite enthralling and better than the monotonous adverts in between crap programmes. 

‘You wouldn’t,’ Aaron said seemingly confident that Robert’s soap-sud filled hand wouldn’t be lowered any closer to him. 

And then it all happened, not in slow motion but so quickly that Charity didn’t know whose hand was on whose head first, but they were splashing and throwing water at each other. Big, lathery bubbles that seemed to slop on the floor when she knew they were both aiming for each other’s heads. 

Robert had grabbed Aaron’s wrists in the kerfuffle and was waiting for his boyfriend to submit, but Aaron was already inching closer and closer to the sink ready to get a fresh handful of bubbles to slather all over Robert’s face. 

‘You’re not going to, are you?’ Robert questioned but the grin on his face, the way his smile displayed all his teeth, meant that Charity was sure he was loving it really. They were teenagers in the flirty way they were acting with each other, which made Charity wonder whether she had stumbled onto a secondary school playing field instead of the back room of her own home. 

Aaron inched closer to Robert, puckering up slightly to his boyfriend’s lips, which seemed to gain Robert’s interest, but all the while using the prospect of physical contact as a ruse to pull his hands away from Robert’s grasp. He scooped up more soap suds from the basin. Charity would have stored them herself as ammunition for later; however, Aaron didn’t seem to want to wait.

He plopped it on Robert’s face, smearing it around with his palm as Charity witnessed Robert closing his eyes not looking best pleased. Aaron struggled to regain his normal composure - something that Charity knew was never fully intact when Robert Sugden was in the room. Instead, Charity could see Aaron’s normal mardy face crack into a smile, his eyes dancing and twinkling as he remained focused on Robert. 

‘Right, you’ve asked for it.’ Robert rushed to the sink, dunked his hand in and grappled for Aaron’s arm again before putting his offering in Aaron’s hair and on his face. Exhaling through his nose, Aaron managed to blow out the liquid that had gone up there. 

‘Sorry.’ Robert retracted, allowing Aaron full use of his arms, concern etched in every corner of his face as Aaron coughed and regained his breath.

Charity wasn’t sure whether this was another sly way of Aaron getting the upperhand in the playful fighting against Robert or not. 

What Robert didn’t notice, but Charity was privy to, was the way Aaron’s hand snaked back into the basin and grasped at another handful of soapy suds. Within seconds Aaron’s hand arched up like a basketball player about to score the winning shot. Instead of the net being his aim, it was the top of Robert’s head which endured the majority of the wet froth. Then pressing his hands into Robert’s blue shirt, Aaron dried them of the water grasping at the material and trying to wind Robert up even more.

Charity was ready to witness Robert’s fuse finally being blown because, after all, Robert did care about his appearance immensely, but no anger was carved in the laughter lines of his face. In fact, Charity knew on second glance that it was love. He was throwing glances at Aaron’s face that were bursting with love, over-flowing with it, that Charity didn’t realise Robert had so much love in him. Robert loved Aaron; therefore, Aaron was the only person to get away with this type of behaviour when it came to Robert. 

Robert moved closer to his boyfriend taking some of the excess liquid from his head into his hands and lurching towards Aaron, cornering him against the kitchen unit. 

Aaron knew what was happening, knew he had no way of escaping the watery hat that Robert was intent on giving him. Succumbing to Robert, he looked up, arching his eyebrow and lifting his head slightly. 

Robert pulled him in quickly, putting the water on Aaron’s head before brushing his lips against Aaron’s. It wasn’t a quick peck. He’d grabbed Aaron’s neck with his right hand and Aaron’s hands were grasping at Robert’s wet hair, all fingers and thumbs and slipperiness. 

Then the sighing happened, and Charity knew without a shadow of a doubt that she needed to escape the room because from her past experience belts would be unbuckled and trousers would be yanked down. That wasn’t something Charity wanted to witness: their sexy time. However, their love? Well, their love was something she realised was a relationship goal that she would have for a long while to come. 

‘All this because I wouldn’t suck you off this morning,’ Aaron said before giving one of his throaty laughs. ‘Perhaps I shouldn’t have used my tongue for something else instead. Although, I don’t remember you complaining about that.’

With that Charity walked out of the room really wishing she hadn’t heard the last part. But then it seemed that was another tattoo she’d have to have removed from her brain. But she couldn’t remove the sight of seeing both of them pushing the boundaries with each other and getting away with it because of their love. 

It wasn’t bile-inducing. 

It was romantic. 

Robert and Aaron were the epitome of romance and a large part of her was glad that she had been allowed to see it.

**Author's Note:**

> Any feedback or comments would be greatly appreciated. :-)


End file.
